Take Note

Sweeping up

When a former treasurer for the Youngstown, Ohio, school district
was convicted of embezzling about $87,000 of school funds, he didn't
know that his sentence would include cleaning up his own mess.

Ralph Logozzo also probably never thought he would work for the
Youngstown city schools again, until the judge sentenced him to perform
six weeks of janitorial services for the district after spending three
months in the Mahoning County jail.

Also as part of his sentence, Mr. Logozzo will have to compose and
deliver a speech to all four of the senior high schools in the
12,000-student district. In the speech, he must apologize and admit
that he violated and abused the trust given to him as treasurer of the
district. The superintendent will schedule the speeches and confirm
that they are done satisfactorily with Mr. Logozzo's chief probation
officer.

Mr. Logozzo was convicted in July and sentenced Oct. 1 after a state
audit showed that he had diverted district money for personal use. The
audit, which covered from January 1993 to December 1996, revealed that
he opened two unauthorized bank accounts in the district's name, using
the money to pay off credit card debts and some loans.

Decked out

High school girls in Kitsap County, Wash., will have no shortage of
pouf and lace to wear at local homecoming galas and proms this year,
thanks to an influx of donated gowns to an area dress bank.

Brandy Duncan, a police sergeant in Poulsbo, a town across the Puget
Sound from Seattle, started the dress bank last spring after noticing
that her eldest daughter's formal gowns were collecting dust in the
closet. Ms. Duncan said she was never able to afford a fancy dress as a
young girl, and wanted to do something to help out other girls whose
families can't swing the high cost of formal wear.

With donated services from area dry cleaners and a local storage
company, Ms. Duncan said she now plans to offer the dress bank for all
formal dances at each of the county's six high schools. Any girl,
regardless of income, may borrow a gown for a dance.